This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!

About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Saturday, April 09, 2016

"Demolition": Jake Gyllenhaal looks silly with his OCD self-deprecation as he grieves the loss of his wife

“Demolition” (2015), directed by Jean-Marc Vallee and written by Bryan Sipe, pretty much drew me into a nihilistic rabbit hole today. To me, the film seemed like politically correct “crybaby” comedy for its own sake, the stuff that meets conventional Hollywood ideas of screenwriting. The tagline is "Life: some disassembly required".

Jake Gyllenhaal once again plays anti-hero (a long way from the nice guy of “Moonlight Mile” or the teen hero of “Donnie Darlo” (remember the rabbits). He plays investment banker Davis, married to Julia (Heather Lind), working for his father-in-law (Chris Cooper). In the opening sequence, as the couple crosses one of Manhattan’s many bridges, Julia is pestering him about fixing things around the house, especially the fridge, working with his hands. There is a sudden crash (the other driver’s fault) and he survives without a scratch, but Julia is killed instantly. The rest of the movie is about his grieving process, and he definitely doesn’t want to move on. One problem is that Julia was pregnant, with a child he later finds out wasn’t his.

In the ICU, he has trouble with a coin-operated vending machine, and starts writing weird letters complaining about their customer service. In the course of time, he meets and dates a rep Karen (Naomi Watts), and builds a bizarre bond with her son Chris (Judah Lewis), whom I thought was a girl. Chris actually asks Davis if Davis thinks he (Chris) is gay.

But the most disorienting part of the movie is Davis’s compulsive behavior, first taking things apart (proving he can become a handyman), but then looking for opportunities to smash things, including his own glass home. That reminds me of my visits as a boy to a psychologist, where we smashed toys (I was about 8).

There’s another thing: Jake’s intermittent depilation seems to become more permanent. In an early scene, he lathers and shaves his stubbly chest on camera, as if his body hair were a superficial and expendable extension of his beard. Some scenes show the past shaving of his arms and legs for other movie (like “Nightcrawler”). Oh, yes, one of the other minor characters is a competitive swimmer, but the connection is never made. And, remember, maybe this got started when Jake appeared in drag on SNL a few years ago.

I saw the film before a small audience in a small auditorium in the recently renovated Ballston Common Regal cinemas. But the sound track in the left channel was extremely noisy and distorted by breakup, resembling inner-groove distortion on a bad LP vinyl record. The sound was affected during the preshow, the previews, and the entire feature. I went downstairs and told management during the previews, but it wasn’t fixed during the showing, even though an employee seemed to be checking the auditorium a couple times.

The music score includes a Chopin nocturne or two, and some Puccini transcribed to piano,

The official site is here (Fox Searchlight). For me, this dramedy wasn’t funny. One star out of five.

Analytics

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at JBoushka@aol.com.

At billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com , the privacy of my visitors is of extreme importance to me. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and how it is used.

Log Files Like many other Web sites, billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com does not use cookies.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com .
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following link.

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on my site. My advertising partners include ....... Google Adsense

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com 's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

Especially for EU visitors: This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. For more info visit https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/